Spider-Man Still Swings

Director Sam Raimi — the genre-jumping dynamo who's done everything from bloody horror (The Evil Dead) to wild Westerns (The Quick and the Dead) — brings Spider-Man 2 back for a second spin as it hits DVD this week. And as Raimi tells TV Guide Online, he's still happy to be caught in Spidey's web.

TV Guide Online: Was it fun to come back and direct a second Spider-Man?Sam Raimi: Yeah, because

Tobey [Maguire], Kirsten [Dunst], James [Franco] and myself had just gotten to know each other as we were finishing the first one. So this movie was even more enjoyable than the first; it was working with old friends.

TVGO: Why do audiences love Spidey?Raimi: Well, Peter Parker is very appealing because he is really one of us. In our own lives, we wrestle with doing the right thing... OK, obviously in a less dramatic way than Spider-Man. (Laughs)

TVGO: Did you dig the Marvel comic? Raimi: When Stan Lee created the character, what made him unique was that so many readers could identify with this kid who was kind of an outsider. I certainly felt connected to [him]. Now, as I'm writing, I have to imagine myself as Peter Parker, and I have to pretend to be a nobler, braver and humbler person. But then I'll start thinking "Why do I have to pretend? Why can't I just be that person in my real life?" It's had a very positive effect on me. But that's what stories of a hero are supposed to do: show us the good we're capable of.

TVGO: What's your favorite superhero film?Raimi: I'm glad they're making a new Superman film, and they have a great filmmaker in Bryan Singer, but they also have a daunting task because Richard Donner did such a brilliant job with the first one. I love that movie's positive and bright nature.

TVGO: What's the best thing about making a Spider-Man flick?Raimi: The name garners a tremendous amount of goodwill. When we go scouting locations in New York, you'll go to a building manager and they'll say "We don't want your cameras on our roof!" But then they hear it's for Spider-Man and it changes to "Oh, yes, please film here. Anything for Spider-Man!"

TVGO: Give us the goods: What's going on with Spider-Man 3?Raimi: I've just finished the story with my brother Ivan, and we're now working on a screenplay with Alvin Sargent. It will pick up where the second one left off, and it's about the budding relationship between Peter and Mary Jane now that she knows who he is. It's still a love story.

TVGO: Who will be the villain?Raimi: We're still trying to figure it out.

TVGO: You think you'll do a fourth movie?Raimi: I think there are going to be a lot of Spider-Man films, and I'd be thrilled to work on all of them.